1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to networking systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to auditory cues for notification of device activity.
2. Background
The purpose of the Jini(trademark) architecture is to federate groups of devices and software components into a single, dynamic distributed system. The resulting federation is provides the simplicity of access, ease of administration and support for sharing that are provided by a large monolithic system while retaining the flexibility, uniform response and control provided by a personal computer or workstation.
The concept of a service is central to the Jini(trademark) architecture. A service is an entity that can be used by a person, a program or another service. A service may be a computation, storage, a communication channel to another user, a software filter, a hardware device or another user. Two examples of services are printing a document and translating from one word-processor format to another.
Members of a Jini(trademark) system federate in order to share access to services. A Jini(trademark) system consists of services that can be collected together for the performance of a particular task. Services may make use of other services, and a client of one service may itself be a service with clients of its own. The dynamic nature of a Jini(trademark) system enables services to be added or withdrawn from a federation at any time according to demand, need or the changing requirements of the workgroup using the system.
Jini(trademark) systems provide mechanisms for service construction, lookup, communication, and use in a distributed system. Examples of services include: devices such as printers, displays or disks; software such as applications or utilities; information such as databases and files; and users of the system.
Services are found and resolved by a lookup service. The lookup service is the central bootstrapping mechanism for the system and provides the major point of contact between the system and users of the system. Devices and services register with the lookup service. When a device plugs in, it goes through an add-in protocol, called discovery, and join-in. The device first locates the lookup service (discovery) and then uploads an object that implements all of its services"" interfaces (join).
When a device registers with a lookup service it receives a lease. Periodically, the device will need to renew the lease with the lookup service. If the device fails to renew the lease, then when the lease expires, the lookup service will remove the entry for it, and the service will no longer be available.
To date, Jini(trademark) development efforts have focused on ensuring the correct functioning of Jini(trademark) technology. The emphasis has been on ensuring the mechanism existed for federating groups of devices and software components into a single, dynamic distributed system. Little emphasis was placed on informing a Jini(trademark) system user of the status of various devices within a Jini(trademark) federation. However, providing feedback to the user of a Jini(trademark) system is important, particularly with respect to unexpected events.
While devices are progressing through various stages of connectivity in a federation, it is desirable to have some indication of the device status. Some devices have display screens for the textual display of status information. However, many devices have small liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that are hard to read, making the textual display of status information impractical. Furthermore, several devices such as storage devices have no display whatsoever, making the textual display of status information impossible. Adding a display to simple devices just to convey status information is often not cost efficient. Accordingly, a need exists in the prior art for a cost-efficient non-visual method for notification of network device activity.
A method for providing network device status notification includes providing at least one auditory cue to indicate at least one device status. According to one aspect, distinct auditory cues are provided when a device begins looking for a federation, when a device has connected to federation and when a device has disconnected from a federation. A network device includes a network interface and an auditory cue unit coupled to the network interface to provide at least one auditory cue to indicate at least one activity status.